The purpose of this article is to discuss a list of graphics cards and if they support Halo Infinite. Halo Infinite was developed on the Slipspace Engine and clearly one of the better games released in 2021. It has received numerous awards from gaming critics. According to Mashable, and others Halo Infinite is the best edition of the franchise in years. Although it still has bugs to work out.
Halo Infinite’s Massive VRAM Consumption
If you have the hardware, you can enjoy this game in 4K resolution. That being said, even the minimum system requirements are not trivial, but also not unrealistic for most gamers. The 1050 Ti, for example is one of the most widely used graphics cards according to the Steam Hardware Survey. Most gaming PCs built within the last 3-4 years should be able to play Halo Infinite without a problem. It is well known that Halo: Infinite consumes a lot of video memory (Tom’s Hardware).
Benchmarking Halo Infinite Graphics Cards
The most important terms to familiarize yourself when reading benchmarks are resolution, graphics settings, and frames per second (FPS). Modern gaming resolutions are 1080p, 1440p, and 4K. The higher the resolution, the better the experience.
Clearly, the higher the graphics settings, the better the gaming experience. And the higher the FPS, the better the gaming experience will be. 60 FPS is ideal for gaming because it aligns with the refresh rate of most monitors. The refresh rate corresponds to its speed, measured in MHz, of refreshing images on the screen. Monitor speeds are typically 60Hz, 75Hz, and 144Hz. If your monitor supports a faster refresh rate, you want a higher FPS. It will give a competitive advantage because you will see things a split second before your online competitors.
Halo for PC can be downloaded from Steam and the system requirements can be found on its Steam webpage.
MINIMUM SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
OS: Windows 10 RS5 x64
Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 1600 or Intel i5-4440
Memory: 8 GB RAM
Graphics: AMD RX 570 or Nvidia GTX 1050 Ti
DirectX: Version 12
Storage: 50 GB available space
The minimum system requirements list the GeForce 1050 Ti or AMD RX 570 for Halo Infinite. The 1050 Ti was released in 2016, and the AMD RX 570 was released in 2017. Five years ago, these cards were the cream of the crop, today they barely make entry-level status.
RECOMMENDED SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS:
Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
OS: Windows 10 19H2 x64
Processor: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X or Intel i7-9700k
Memory: 16 GB RAM
Graphics: Radeon RX 5700 XT or Nvidia RTX 2070
DirectX: Version 12
Storage: 50 GB available space
The recommended system requirements list more recent graphics cards, AMD’s RX 5700 XT and NVIDIA’s RTX 2070. Both of these cards were launched in 2019 and will produce better gaming experiences. The problem with these cards is their current pricing makes PC gaming really expensive. The RX 5700 XT is going for over $1,500 and the RTX 2070 is somewhere in the $1,200-$1,500 range.
If you’re researching a new graphics card for Halo Infinite, it’s worth reviewing the list below. It will help you find one that can meet your budget the game well.
We’ll go through each of the major graphics cards created by NVIDIA and AMD Radeon. These will be scored on how they should perform against the system requirements.
Without further delay, let us review graphics cards on the market and how they perform for Halo Infinite.
Halo Infinite Graphics Cards Reference Table
| NVIDIA Graphics Cards | Will This NVIDIA GeForce Graphics Card Handle Halo Infinite? |
| NVIDIA GeForce 700 Series | No, it is unlikely given the minimum requirement of GeForce GTX 1050 Ti |
| NVIDIA GeForce 800 Series Graphics Cards | No, it is unlikely given the minimum requirement of GeForce GTX 1050 Ti |
| NVIDIA GeForce 900 Series Graphics Cards | Will not play well. The 980 Ti Series graphics cards is the only one in this series that would be able to play Halo Infinite. You can play on high graphics settings but only at around 40-50 FPS, which is not good. It will play the game with some choppy-ness and stuttering. You can change the settings to low graphics and achieve better. |
| NVIDIA GeForce 1050 Ti | Although listed as a minimum requirement for graphics card, it has similar performance to the 980 Ti. The 980 Ti actually performs better. It has 2,816 CUDA Cores vs the 1050 Ti’s 768 CUDA Cores. The 980 Ti also has 6GB VRAM vs the 1050 Ti’s 4GB VRAM. The only advantage of the 1050 Ti is its base clock. |
| NVIDIA GeForce 1060 | Using the NVIDIA GeForce 1060 with Halo Infinite on low graphics settings with 1080p resolution, you can expect anywhere from 60-70 FPS, which is good. But, you’re only on 1080p resolution and low graphics settings, which is not ideal. Bumping up to medium graphics settings will drop your FPS to below 60, which is not good. |
| NVIDIA GeForce 1070 | The NVIDIA GeForce 1070 is ideal for gamers who game in 1080p resolution and would like to utilize ultra-graphics settings. The GeForce 1070 can achieve 70+ FPS with Halo Infinite using these settings, which is good. |
| NVIDIA GeForce 1080 | With the NVIDIA GeForce 1080 graphics card, you can expect to achieve over 70 FPS on 1080p resolution with ultra-graphics settings, which is good. You can even use this card to play on medium and high graphics settings with 1440p resolution, but beware, the FPS drops below 50 which can lead to choppy-ness and stuttering. |
| NVIDIA GeForce 1080 Ti – | Strangely, the 1080 Ti does not seem to deliver quite as fast as FPS as the 1080. this may be due to a lower boost clock speed on the 1080 Ti (~1500MHz vs ~1700 MHz). On 1080p resolution with ultra-graphics, you can expect 50-60 FPS which is not great. That being said, you can actually play 4K resolution with ultra-graphics settings and still get over 30 FPS which actually is impressive, but the FPS is still not good. Playable, but not good. |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 | The GeForce RTX 2060 is similar to the 1080 Ti in that it fails to get above 60 FPS on average with 1080p resolution on ultra-graphics settings for Halo Infinite. Again its boost clock is lower than the GeForce 1080, which may be the problem. That being said, you can move up to 1440p with low graphics settings and play at over 70 FPS. Moving to ultra-graphics settings on 1440p will drop your FPS to around 55-60 and going to low-settings on 4K will result in around 40 FPS. |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 | The GeForce 2070 has a boost clock of ~1700MHz, 8GB VRAM with GDDR6, and 14Gbps memory speed. It can handle 4K with ultra-graphics settings and deliver just under 60 FPS. When you drop your settings and resolution, it only gets better from there. The GeForce RTX 2070 is a good graphics card for Halo Infinite for the average gamer, but not quite for serious gamers who want high FPS and excellent graphics at high resolution. |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 Super | The GeForce RTX 2070 Super is a step up in all measures from the RTX 2070. You can expect 90-100 FPS on big game battles on high graphics settings with 1440p resolution. 1080p resolution with ultra-graphics settings will result in 70-80 FPS, and 4K resolution with medium and high graphics settings will result in 40-60 FPS. The RTX 2070 Super is a good graphics card for the average gamer, but not a serious gamer with higher expectations for graphics and gameplay experiences. |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Super | Yes, the GeForce RTX 2080 Super is a step up in all measures from the 2070 Super. It’s going to be able to play 4K resolution with ultra-graphics settings, but only deliver about 30-40 FPS, which is something that the 1080 Ti and 2060 can do, but just on lower graphics settings. It will be able to deliver 70-90 FPS on 1440p with ultra-graphics settings. The RTX 2080 Super is a great card for the average gamer who wants to enjoy 1440p resolution, but it’s not quite there for 4K gaming. |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti | The GeForce 2080 Ti is the lowest model of NVIDIA GeForce graphics cards that can play Halo Infinite with ultra-graphic settings on 4K resolution with a decent FPS number. You can expect to achieve between 60-70 FPS with the 2080 Ti, but this may not be good enough for some gamers who like faster refresh rates, such as 75Mhz or 144Mhz. |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 | The GeForce RTX 3050 will be suited best for 1080p resolution with ultra-graphics settings for Halo Infinite. It’s not quite beefy enough for 1440p resolution with ultra-graphics as it doesn’t quite get up to 60 FPS on 1440p with ultra-graphics settings. Sure, you can play Halo Infinite on high graphics settings, and you might reach 60 FPS, but it’s really better suited at 1080p resolution. |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 | The GeForce RTX 3060 will surpass recommended requirements for Halo Infinite, but it really only plays well on 1080p resolution with ultra-graphics settings. You can expect 60-70 FPS there. Once you bump up to 1440 ultra settings, you dip below 60 FPS into the 50-60 range. On 4K low-graphics settings you are in the 30-40 FPS range. |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 | The GeForce RTX 3070 will handle Halo Infinite comfortable with ultra-graphics settings on 1440p resolution and you can expect 60-80 FPS. Once you bump it up to 4K with ultra-graphics settings, the FPS is only between the 50-60 range. You can set a minimum FPS of 60, but then graphics presentation may not be as high quality. |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti | The GeForce RTX 3070 Ti will surpass recommended requirements and allow you to play 1440p on ultra-grahics settings at about 70-80 FPS. Of course, once you move up to 4K resolution on ultra-graphics settings, that number will drop but by how much is hard to say, given there were not any good available benchmarks publicly available at the time of this writing. |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 | Yes, the GeForce RTX 3080 will surpass recommended requirements and allow you to play Halo Infinite with 4K resolution on ultra-graphics settings at 70-80 FPS. It is the lowest model in the GeForce RTX line that will perform with ultra-graphics settings on 4K resolution at decent FPS. |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti | Yes, the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti will surpass recommended requirements on Halo Infinite and allow you to play on 4K resolution with ultra-graphics settings enabled and still achieve FPS ranges between 60-70. |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 | Yes, the GeForce RTX 3090 will surpass recommended requirements for Halo Infinite and allow you to play on 4K resolution with ultra-graphics settings enabled. You can expect to achieve between 60-80 FPS. |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti | Yes, the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti will surpass recommended requirements for Halo Infinite and allow you to play on 4K resolution with ultra-graphics enabled. You can expect all the way up to 120 FPS. |
| AMD Radeon Graphics Cards | Will This AMD Radeon Graphics Card Handle Halo Infinite? |
| AMD R5 M330 | No, it is unlikely given the minimum requirement of AMD Radeon RX 570 |
| AMD R7 240 | No, it is unlikely given the minimum requirement of AMD Radeon RX 570 |
| AMD R9 280 | No, it is unlikely given the minimum requirement of AMD Radeon RX 570 |
| AMD Radeon RX 520X 2GB | No, it is unlikely given the minimum requirement of AMD Radeon RX 570 |
| AMD Radeon RX 550 | No, it is unlikely given the minimum requirement of AMD Radeon RX 570 |
| AMD Radeon RX 560 or 560D | No, it is unlikely given the minimum requirement of AMD Radeon RX 570 |
| AMD Radeon RX 570 | Yes, the AMD Radeon RX 570 is the minimum requirement for a graphics card on the AMD Radeon spectrum. Even at 1080p resolution with low graphics settings, you are only achieving 40-60 FPS. The game is playable, but definitely deserves a higher end graphics card. |
| AMD Radeon RX 580 | Yes, the AMD Radeon RX 580 will meet the minimum requirement for a graphics card. It does not however perform very well, providing a range of 40-60 FPS on 1080p with low graphics settings. |
| AMD Radeon RX 590 8GB | Yes, the AMD Radeon RX 590 will meet the minimum requirements for a graphics card for Halo Infinite. However, it along with the other RX 500 series just does not perform very well on 1080p resolution with low graphics settings and delivers a range between 50-60 FPS. The AMD Radeon 500 series cards are really at the bottom of the barrel when it comes to meeting requirements for Halo Infinite. |
| AMD Radeon RX Vega 11 | Yes, the AMD Radeon RX Vega 11 will meet the minimum requirements for a graphics card for Halo Infinite. However, it is along the same lines as the RX 500 series in that it is truly the bottom of the barrel performance-wise for graphics cards that will meet the minimum requirements. It will only perform well on 1080p resolution with low graphics settings and deliver a range of 50-60 FPS. |
| AMD Radeon 5300 XT | No, the Radeon 5300 XT is unlikely to play Halo Infinite well, given it only has 3GB of VRAM, compared to the RX 570 which is the minimum and has 4-8GB. Halo Infinite takes a lot of VRAM and 3GB is likely not going to be enough. |
| AMD Radeon 5500 XT | Yes, the Radeon 5500 XT meets the recommended system requirements for Halo Infinite and will be able to play it well on 1080p resolution with low-graphics settings. You can expect between 60-70 FPS. When you bump it up to medium settings that number drops below 60 and the same when you bump it up to 1440p resolution with low graphics settings. This card is not for the serious gamer but will allow you to at least play the game. |
| AMD Radeon 5600 XT | Yes, the Radeon 5500 XT meets the minimum system requirements for Halo Infinite, but not the recommended as it only has 6GB of VRAM. You will likely only be playing Halo Infinite on 1080p resolution with low graphics settings using this card and should expect to hit right around 60-70 FPS. |
| AMD Radeon 5700 XT | Yes, the Radeon 5700 XT meets the recommended system requirements for Halo Infinite and you can expect to achieve over 70 FPS on ultra settings with 1080p resolution. Bumping up to 1440p resolution with ultra-settings will result in 50-60 FPS, so playable and not terrible, but also not good. Moving up to 4K on medium settings will only result in a paltry 30-40 FPS. |
| AMD Radeon 6400 XT | Yes, the Radeon 6400 meets the minimum system requirements for Halo Infinite, but only has 4GB of VRAM. Benchmarks are not provided so FPS ranges cannot be provided but given the comparison to the RX 570 it would seem likely that this card would be okay for 1080p resolution with low-medium graphics settings. |
| AMD Radeon 6500 XT | Yes, the Radeon 6500 meets the minimum system requirements for Halo Infinite, but only has 4GB of VRAM. Benchmarks are not provided so FPS ranges cannot be provided but given the comparison to the RX 570 it would seem likely that this card would be okay for 1080p resolution with low-medium graphics settings. |
| AMD Radeon 6600 XT | Yes, the Radeon 6600 meets the recommended system requirements for Halo Infinite and you can expect to play well on 1440p or 1080p resolutions, but not quite there for ultra graphics settings. Ultra graphics settings on both 1440p and 1080p result in less than 60 FPS. That being said you will be able to play using medium or high and achieve 60+ FPS on both resolutions if you’re okay with those graphics settings. |
| AMD Radeon 6700 XT | Yes, the Radeon 6700 meets the recommended system requirements for Halo Infinite and will give you the horsepower to play at 100+ FPS on 1440p resolution with ultra-graphics settings. Even at 4K with ultra-graphics settings you are still getting 50-60 FPS. |
| AMD Radeon 6900 XT | Yes, the Radeon 6900 XT is the most powerful Radeon graphics card on the market today. It will play Halo Infinite and deliver 100-120 FPS on 1080p with ultra-settings, 100+ FPS on 1440p with ultra-settings, and 50+ FPS on 4K with ultra-settings. |
Conclusion – Will My Graphics Card Handle Halo Infinite?
Halo Infinite uses 4GB of VRAM on the low end. It was interesting to see that even high-end graphics cards only deliver 50+ FPS on 4K resolution. This was the case with the like the AMD Radeon 6900 XT. Halo Infinite in comparison to other games like Fortnite require a lot more resources. Even the high-end graphics cards don’t seem to be completely ready to deliver high FPS (144+). That’s if they are using ultra-settings and higher resolutions like 1440p and 4K.
It also seems that this game was built and optimized for NVIDIA graphics cards. Not so much AMD Radeon graphics cards. A Tech Spot article discusses this at Halo: Infinite PC Graphics Benchmarks. It also shows AMD seriously lacking in performance on Halo: Infinite.
Halo Infinite is still a great game and there are a lot of graphics cards that make this game playable.
For all the unfortunate one’s who don’t have the minimum system requirements, check out these two articles:
Is your graphics card not on here? Mention @goodtechmaster on twitter with your graphics card and find out how yours ranks.